The recent flurry of articles around the “failure” of the creative class to save our cities—as Richard Florida’s writings have been characterized as promising—and the challenges of measuring the value of “creative placemaking” has me wondering if we are nearing the end of the road for all of the instrumental arguments we have been making for the nonprofit arts over the past 30 years. Or perhaps we ran out of road a while back but just didn’t notice. One of our most beloved arguments for support of the arts has been the idea that they … [Read more...]
What can science tell us about the art experience?
Watch the following video in which Gary Vikan, Director of the Walters Museum of Art and a faculty member of the Salzburg Global Forum for Young Cultural Leaders, discusses how neuroscience, evolutionary biology and the cave paintings in Lascaux might point to the fact that aesthetics is "hard-wired into our heads." Add your voice to the discussion. Use the comments below to weigh in with your thoughts on how we in the arts create and articulate value. … [Read more...]
